GREEN BAY (NBC 26) — For fourth grader Kingston Goodletson, walking into his school book fair did not feel like an assignment. It felt like freedom.
“Wait… wait… they got Sonic… Sonic 3,” Kingston said, scanning the shelves.
That excitement is exactly the point.
WATCH THE FULL BROADCAST STORY HERE:
Thanks to NBC26’s “If You Give a Child a Book” campaign, a partnership with the Scripps Howard Fund, students at low-income schools across Northeast Wisconsin are getting something many do not always have. The chance to choose their own books and build their own home libraries.
This year, the campaign raised $26,000. That is enough to give each participating student 10 brand-new books: 5 today, 5 more this spring, and another book fair planned for the fall.
Educators say the ability to choose matters just as much as the books themselves.
“Having their own books… it just is a sense of ownership,” said fourth-grade teacher Ashley Thompson. “When kids pick books from their own bookshelf, it motivates them to read more.”
Kingston agrees.
“Mostly comic books, some mangas,” he said. “That’s what I mostly like to read because they’re funny and they express a lot of feelings.”
For Kingston, the books he chooses do not just get read once. They stay.
“It just gets bigger,” he said, describing his growing bookshelf at home. “I gotta get new places for it because my bookshelf is already filled out.”
That growing collection does something else, too.
“It motivates me more,” Kingston said. “I’m gonna read these books.”
Research shows children are far more likely to read and finish books they choose themselves. And in Wisconsin, that matters.
According to literacy advocates, one in seven adults in Wisconsin struggles with low literacy. That challenge affects income, education, and long-term health outcomes.
Programs that put books directly into children’s hands, especially books they are excited about, are one way to help change that trajectory.
NBC26’s “If You Give a Child a Book” campaign continues throughout the school year, helping students across Northeast Wisconsin turn book fairs into home libraries, one choice at a time.
The impact starts with five free books. For kids like Kingston, it does not stop there.
